by Callie Rose
“Jayce, claws!”
I thought my scream would be swallowed by the sounds of battle, but somehow it reached him. He dodged in the nick of time.
Sonja wasn’t so lucky.
Before her fireball could reach its zenith, Gavriel embedded his claws in her throat. Her mouth fell open, moving like she was trying to speak or swallow, but she couldn’t do anything. Xero hurled fireballs in rapid succession, lighting Gavriel up and almost obscuring the gurgling scream as the lord of the dark tore Sonja apart.
Her death was quick, but that didn’t ease the shock and horror that crashed through me as I watched her fall. Tears spilled down my cheeks and I pulled my dagger out of one boot and a stake out of the other. I didn’t know exactly what the fuck kind of supernatural Gavriel was, but he was going to die one way or another.
I lunged at him, but never made contact. A furry black thing struck my side like a freight train when I was in mid-air, making me tumble to the ground a few yards away.
He brought minions. Of course.
Gavriel stepped back, grinning maniacally as demon after demon joined the battle. The one who’d tackled me was on top of me, its ugly pig-teeth darting for my throat as it pinned me down. I buried the knife in its skull and it squealed, its eyes rolling back as all three hundred pounds of it collapsed on top of me.
“Kingston,” I groaned, unable to fill my lungs enough to shout. “Get your ass over here, please!”
A blast of flame arched over me, striking the attacking minions beyond. A second later, Kingston’s massive dragon claws snatched the beast off of me and chucked it at Gavriel, who ripped it in half with his claws before it struck him. My head was pounding, but it wasn’t from the impact. It was the stench of charred, twisted magic pounding like a drum through my senses. I whipped around to face Gavriel. His lips were barely moving, but I could almost see the ripples in the air. He was chanting something low and dark and dangerous.
I turned back to the fray. “Kingston, to your right! Jayce, left! Kai, above you! Xero, blast Gavriel’s face! Run!”
It almost worked. They acted as a unit and disabled the minions, at least temporarily, but Xero’s blast met Gavriel’s shield and reflected back at him. Gavriel didn’t look the least bit discouraged, which pissed me off. Half his minions were gone, and the other half were moments from death. What the hell made him so special? So powerful?
He grinned at me as if he’d heard my thought and snatched up one of his own fleeing fiends. It squealed in terror. I stared, unable to believe what I was seeing as Gavriel sank his claws into his own minion, letting the blood soak his fingers up to the knuckle before tearing the beast apart.
Then, dripping claws outstretched, he turned toward my men.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Jayce! Look out!”
I moved, driven by pure fear.
But I wasn’t fast enough. Nothing would have been fast enough.
Gavriel whirled through the battle, slashing with his tainted claws. Whatever had infected the feral vampire must’ve been in Gavriel’s minion too, and I watched in horror as he tore at Jayce, Kai, Xero, and Kingston, infecting their blood. They fought hard against him, but he managed to pierce the skin of each man as his remaining minions held me off, keeping me from coming to their aid.
My mates landed in a tangled heap at my feet, their bodies jerking as they groaned. Gavriel’s laugh echoed through the chamber as he stood flanked by his two remaining fiends, just watching and waiting.
Jayce clambered to his feet first, foaming at the mouth and full of murderous rage.
Gavriel’s chuckle trailed off ominously. “Get her.”
The hellhound roared and jumped at me. The others scrambled to their feet, all of them zombified, infused with pure, dark magic. Jayce was swinging at me, his hands morphing in and out of hellhound claws as he attacked. I knew what I needed to do, but he wasn’t making it easy. Dodging his blows forced me deeper into the cave, farther down the passage.
Our torches had been abandoned near the walls before the fight began, and they still burned dimly where they lay on the ground. I glanced around as I dodged, seeking a good vantage point. I looked at one spot just an instant too long, and his massive black paw nearly took my head off.
“Go to sleep,” I persuaded as I dodged. “Sit. Stay. Play dead. Roll over.”
Okay, maybe I was grasping at straws a little. I hoped like hell he wouldn’t remember that afterward.
He was still a slashing whirlwind, showing no signs of slowing down, and now the others were after me too. I scrambled up a boulder with Jayce following me up on my left, Kai on my right. Kai would be easy. His weapons were in his mouth. But Jayce—
“Ow! Damn it, Jayce!” He’d caught my thigh, carving a deep, nasty gash in it. I needed to get away from those motherfucking claws.
Kai’s hot breath on the back of my neck made my decision easy. I jumped off of the twelve-foot boulder over Jayce’s head, twisting in mid-air to catch myself on his broad shoulders.
He roared, swiping at me but unable to reach me if I stayed in just the right spot. I clamped onto his rib cage with my thighs and slid my upper body over his shoulder as I put him in a tight headlock. His paw flew through the air, ready to tear my face off, and I forced his chin to turn toward me and kissed his mouth.
I felt his claws catch on a few loose tendrils of my hair, yanking the strands out, but the razor sharp weapons missed my face. Any closer, and I would have been done for.
I could hear the rest of the men coming, but I had to finish with Jayce before I could deal with them.
Forcing his lips apart with my tongue, I deepened the kiss, pushing thoughts and feelings and memories at him in a pleasant, warm, erotic tangle. He swiped weakly once more, then his hand cradled my cheek, stroking it instead of attacking. As our lips stayed fused together, healing magic and power suffused me.
Just as my thigh began to heal, my hair caught fire. Whipping around, I found Xero below me, lobbing fireballs up at us. I squeezed Jayce’s hand then let go, falling at an angle so that I landed on Xero’s chest, knocking the wind out of him as he crashed to the stony floor. Straddling his chest, I kissed him again and again, mentally reminding him of every precious hour we had ever spent talking over the mysteries of the universe, the politics of magic, and the magic of humanity. The power I’d gleaned from Jayce boosted my efforts, and I spilled everything I had into Xero.
“Hey, not that it’s not hot as fuck to watch you do that, but wrap it up,” Jayce hissed as he ran over to us, crouching to stay out of Gavriel’s sight. “He doesn’t know what’s up yet—doesn’t know you’re bringing us back—but I can’t hold Kingston and Kai off without making him suspicious.”
Xero’s fire-hot hands fluttered over my hips and he sighed, releasing the poison from within himself. I kissed him one last time and turned away just in time to dodge a stream of fire from Kingston’s snout.
Ah, fuck. How the hell was I supposed to kiss him if he was in dragon form?
Kai skittered along the wall to my right like some kind of four-legged spider, blending in with the shadows—all but his teeth, which gleamed in the dim light. He slid into a little pocket where Gavriel wouldn’t be able to see him.
“Keep him there,” I told Jayce and Xero. “I’ll be back. Gotta take care of Kingston first.”
“What are you doing? He’s going to roast you alive!”
Xero grabbed my arm hard enough to hurt, his eyes wild with terror and a shame so deep I could feel it in the pit of my gut. The fire demon had battled against the evil Gavriel had tried to infect him with once before—and now the dark lord had done it again, turning good men into his evil pawns.
“I’ll be okay. Keep Kai there.” I didn’t use persuasion, but my tone made it clear this wasn’t up for debate. We didn’t have time to argue.
Xero went reluctantly, but at least he went. Kingston was gearing up for another fire burst. I had less than six seconds to do something, any
thing, if I didn’t want to become a charcoal slab where I stood.
So I charged him.
He charged me.
At the last moment, I slid beneath his long, shimmering snout, scraping my leg on the rough rock, then wrapped my arms around his neck. Damn it. That was a mistake. My clothes immediately began to smoke. They’d catch fire soon if I didn’t let go.
“Ow! Fuck, Kingston! Will you stop?!”
He was writhing in frustrated figure eights, snapping his jaws and breathing puffs of smoke and flame as he tried to get to me. I stayed right where he couldn’t reach me, not even with his flame.
“Come on, you know what to do, you big lizard. You’re never gonna get me in this form. I can stay under here all day.”
I was hardcore bluffing. It was about a billion degrees down here, next to his fire-making gizzard. Sweat was already rolling into my eyes, and I could feel my muscles starting to tense and tighten as the moisture fled from them. I had maybe another minute or two before I would have to give up.
But I knew Kingston. Possessed or not, he had no patience for futility.
With one final dramatic roar accompanied by a burst of flame, he jerkily shifted back into his human form, falling on top of me as he forgot to pull himself onto his back legs before completing the shift. I caught him and wrapped my arms and legs around him, fighting him for his mouth. He was bewildered and pissed off and kept trying to light me on fire with his breath.
“Goddamn you. Hold still,” I commanded.
He kept thrashing. He wasn’t going to let me get close to his primary weapon without a fight. I latched my teeth onto his earlobe and felt his body respond even if his brain wasn’t quite with us yet. The new sensation made him freeze for a brief second, just long enough for me to move my kiss to his cheek and scruff him like a feral cat. I tugged on his hair, forcing his head to turn. Finally catching his mouth, I pulled a furious kiss out of him. Hot and angry and wild, it reminded me so much of the first time we had ever kissed that I almost forgot myself in the wave of nostalgia.
Gavriel’s scaly chuckle brought me harshly back.
For a horrible moment, I thought the fallen lord had figured out what I was doing, but when I looked up, I realized that all he could see from where he stood was what looked like Kingston pinning me down and trying to tear my throat out. The fact that the dragon shifter’s teeth were sheathed behind velvet lips was a detail too small to figure out in the dark.
Kingston was covering me in kisses now—hard, desperate kisses. I met his emerald eyes and saw the realization of his greatest fear. Kingston, who ran his life like a business, always ordered and in control, had just lost control in the worst possible way.
“Drag me over there,” I whispered. “Act like you’re still possessed. Kai’s the last one.”
Kingston did as I said, but he kept shooting me little worried glances. If we managed to survive this, he was going to need a massive therapy session to work through this moment. I hung limply in his grasp as he dragged me over to where Xero and Jayce had Kai pinned down.
Gavriel’s chuckle deepened and lengthened.
Good. Keep thinking you’re winning, old man. Just for a few more minutes.
Kai was struggling and snapping at the arms holding him down. I stepped around the trio, kneeling behind the vampire’s head. I held him still so I could kiss him, and that just seemed to enrage him more. Kingston joined the other two, adding his body weight to keep Kai still.
Gavriel was starting to gather his forces. He was going to saunter right over and finish us off, whether the guys were evil-infected zombies or not. It was time to go, but Kai wouldn’t stop biting at me.
“Come on! I don’t have time for this shit,” I muttered.
Finally, I ignored his teeth entirely and just met his mouth. His fangs pierced my upper lip and he almost tore it off, but as my tongue trailed along his lower lip, he started to relax. The process was way faster this time; I assumed it was because of the amount of blood involved, but it could also have been the fact that we’d done this before.
As soon as he started to kiss me back, I ripped my mouth away from his before the depth and sweetness of the kiss could consume me. I needed to stay sharp, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t afford to get lost in Kai right now.
I moved into a crouch and peered over Xero’s head. Gavriel was taking his sweet time as he moved toward us, his remaining minions gathered around him.
Basking in his own genius, I bet. Savoring the moment before the final kill.
“Keep savoring, old man,” I muttered. Then I turned to all my men.
A wave of relief surged through me as their gazes met mine—they were all as beat up and bloodied as I was, but their eyes were clear, their expressions determined. I wasn’t in this alone. We were together.
I jerked my head down the passageway, gesturing deeper into the massive cave. “Come on. Quickly. Quietly. Watch our backs. Run.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We crept quickly and quietly down the dim passage until Gavriel’s hideous roar exploded behind us, then we broke into an all-out run.
Kingston snatched up a torch without breaking stride, dimly illuminating the space immediately in front of us. We stumbled and slid, but we managed to stay ahead of Gavriel and his fiendish duo. I was trusting Kingston to lead us to the stones, knowing his dragon’s love of treasure would guide him there. Meanwhile, all of my attention was on our backs, where I could feel Gavriel closing the gap.
“Faster!” I gasped.
The space between my ribs was on fire and I could barely catch a breath, but the roiling black magic at my heels spurred me on faster and faster. The magic grew stronger around us until it was a palpable mist in the air, which grew thicker with every step until I could barely see Kingston in front of me. Then, with a startled yelp, he disappeared entirely.
I didn’t have time to process what’d just happened before I stepped off the same ledge he had and slid down the same steep slope that’d snatched him away. I fell on top of him, then rolled us both out of the way as Xero, Jayce, and Kai tumbled down after us.
“Over there,” Kingston rasped, gasping for breath.
I followed his pointing finger to a large dip in the ground that reminded me, ridiculously, of a model of a dinosaur nest I’d seen in elementary school. It was perfectly round and piled with egg-shaped stones of all sizes and colors. Kingston pulled the precious list out of his pocket.
“Empty your bags,” I panted. “Everything, leave everything. Take the rocks.”
Dumping our things caused a racket, the sounds seeming even louder as they bounced off the high ceiling and cave walls. I winced, wishing I had considered that, but we didn’t have time to worry about it. I started counting the rocks in each color as the guys shoved them in their bags. They filled theirs, then I filled mine.
Then I panicked.
“Who has the little blue one?” I hissed.
A fiend shrieked as it slid down the slope behind us.
“We got company,” Jayce called, glancing up with wide eyes.
“Who has the little blue rock?”
“Shit.” Xero snatched Kai’s bags as the vampire leapt over us to fight off the fiend. A second shriek shattered my concentration, and I lost count again.
Motherfucker. Why did it have to be twenty-four damn rocks? Who needs that many rocks?!
Swearing, I emptied my bag into the center again and separated the rocks by color. Jayce ran to help Kai. Kingston was very carefully taking each stone out of his bag and lining it up with the others. I snatched his bag out of his hands.
“What the fuck?” His eyes flashed fire for an instant, and I shot him a look to cool his dragon rage. Now probably wasn’t the time to remind him he wouldn’t get to keep the stones anyway.
“We don’t have time for this, Kingston. Chill your dragon out. Go help the others.”
“But…the stones…”
“Go!”
Xero
and I counted and sorted the rocks as fast as we could as the sounds of battle grew louder behind us. I counted twice, then again as we were putting the rocks away. We had them all, and just in time too. Gavriel was floating down the slope, his feet barely touching the rough stone, purple fire burning on his fingertips.
“Guys? Time to go!”
The other men sprinted back to us as soon as I shouted, and we scrambled to link hands.
“The lobby,” Kingston said.
“No! We can’t teleport into the school. The mineral pool by the gate.”
“But—”
“On three! One! Two!” A purple fireball singed my hair, and I ducked. “Three!”
A portal shimmered into existence, but it was weak and shaky. It wasn’t going to have the power to bring us back.
“Somebody wasn’t concentrating!”
“Who can concentrate at a time like this?” Kingston shouted back at me.
“Fucking focus, goddamn it! On three! One!” Another fireball grazed my body. Gavriel was playing with me. “Two!” A third fireball went way wide. Maybe he wasn’t playing. Maybe the powerful, pulsing magic down here was screwing with him. “Three!”
The portal opened, strong this time, sucking at our hair and clothes. Just a little stronger and it would take us away too. I focused with all my strength, drawing on every bit of my magical training I had ever paid attention to.
Gavriel was laughing again. God, I hate him.
I opened my eyes just in time to see a purple fireball as big as my head fly toward us. Xero blocked it with one of his own.
“Now or never!” he shouted.
“Never!”
Gavriel’s shout cut through the air like a blade, and he lunged at us just as we jumped toward the portal, magical energy gathering between his hands.
Admittedly, I’d been guilty of not always paying attention in class. I’d never been a straight-A student when I was human, and that hadn’t changed when I’d become a demon.
